About this item
An inspiring story that shows how dogs can be rescued, and can rescue in return.With her critically acclaimed, bestselling first book, Scent of the Missing, Susannah Charleson was widely praised for her unique insight into the kinship between humans and dogs, as revealed through her work in canine search and rescue alongside her partner, golden retriever Puzzle. Now, in The Possibility Dogs, Charleson journeys into the world of psychiatric service, where dogs aid humans with disabilities that may be unseen but are no less felt. This work had a profound effect on Charleson, perhaps because, for her, this journey began as a personal one: Charleson herself struggled with posttraumatic stress disorder for months after a particularly grisly search. Collaboration with her search dog partner made the surprising difference to her own healing. Inspired by that experience, Charleson learns to identify abandoned dogs with service potential, often plucking them from shelters at the last minute, and to train them for work beside hurting partners, to whom these second-chance dogs bring intelligence, comfort, and hope. Along the way she comes to see canine potential everywhere, often where she least expects it - from Merlin the chocolate lab puppy with the broken tail once cast away in a garbage bag, who now stabilizes his partner's panic attacks; to Ollie, the blind and deaf terrier, rescued moments before it was too late, who now soothes anxious children; to Jake Piper, the starving pit bull terrier mix with the wayward ears who is transformed into a working service dog and, who, for Charleson, goes from abandoned to irreplaceable.
About the Author
NEW YORK TIMES Bestseller Susannah Charleson works as a search specialist with her K9 partner, a Golden Retriever named Puzzle, for a U.S. search-and-rescue team and research group focusing on the special-needs missing. Charleson is also the Executive Director of Possibility Dogs, Inc., a 501c3 nonprofit dedicated to rescuing and training homeless dogs for service and therapy work.Charleson's first book, SCENT OF THE MISSING: LOVE AND PARTNERSHIP WITH A SEARCH AND RESCUE DOG (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2010) , was optioned for television in 2010. Her second book, THE POSSIBILITY DOGS: WHAT A HANDFUL OF "UNADOPTABLES" TAUGHT ME ABOUT SERVICE, HOPE, AND HEALING (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) releases in June 2013.If she's not "beside a dog, somewhere," Charleson -- a commercial pilot and flight instructor -- hopes she's exploring, either airborne in her Piper Archer or at the keyboard on a new book.
